The covered notebook

I remember those days during my childhood when teachers ask to cover our textbooks and notebooks. They just say cover the notebook. I used to wonder, “Why on earth are they asking to cover the notebooks when they look good in their original form itself? They have a beautiful front cover, and why should I spoil this beauty by covering the book, that too with a brown cover? Even sometimes when the book gets torn, I used to sometimes feel glad that the real cover of the book is showing out. The informative “Did you know”  questions in the back of the notebook and the beautiful images in the front portion attracted me a lot.

At later stages in life, I started interpreting various reasons for it. First, by covering a notebook you ensure that it doesn’t get torn. Second, it gives a clean picture that I am doing my work in an organized manner. Third, there will be uniformity in the outer appearance of the books and I don’t get distracted.

The popular brown cover!

When it comes to covering books, teachers ask every child to cover the book with brown cover only. Even though certain children cover with glossy brown covers, the teachers strictly ask them to stop doing it (this being due to the child not getting distracted).  While the children cover the notebook/textbook, they also label them diligently.

Important message that book covering reveals to us

We cover the notebooks and textbooks because they are long-lasting and can be passed to other people too.

There is a subtle message that the information the child gains from the book is of paramount importance and it should be valued.

There is another important message that we should not take for granted the important belongings in life. Covering the book has a hidden message that the child is taught how to cherish essential things in life.

Take-home message

Generally children handle books carelessly and hence they are taught to cover the books. The notebook or textbook may even look good and be long-lasting without covering (this is the crux of the piece), but the thought of maintaining things carefully should be instilled in the child’s mind. In later stages too, the child will treasure his/her belongings through this habit. Who knows, this may also be engraved deeply in the child’s sub-conscious mind and he/she will learn to value relations too.